Book review: The Joy of Sox

I haven’t accomplished a ton of knitting this week… the weather was quite good and so I spent a lot more time than usual outdoors trying to get the yard into shape for spring.  The weeds grow so quickly!  However, I did manage to cast on for another Cedar Leaf Shawlette, and as of last night, the stockinette portion is done.  I’ll take this with me on the airplane today and get started on the leaves:

This photo doesn’t quite do justice to the true color of this yarn – it’s a bit washed out here.  I’ll get a better one when the project is finished. This is a retirement gift for a colleague and I hope to have it done for the reception.

I have a small stack of books I’ve been meaning to tell you about.  I recently succumbed to The Joy of Sox.  I kept seeing patterns from this book pop up that I liked, and when I had a 50% off coupon and saw it at AC Moore, I jumped. 

I can take or leave the whole “sexy socks” theme – it is minorly amusing.  But let me show you the 7 (yes, seven) patterns I queued!

A Roll in the Hay (by Gina House), above, is a good pattern for a solid or semi-solid yarn.  It features wheat sheaves as the major design element, and some ribbing and seed stitch to fill in the blanks.  Very attractive.

Make-Up Socks (by Kristin Kapur) is another good choice for a solid or semi-solid yarn and was already in my Ravelry queue before I bought the book. It has some climbing vines that are quite fetching.  I could use my green Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine for these…

Royal Flush (by Mona Schmidt) is another good choice for a solid yarn (hmmm, I’m sensing a theme here).  The traveling twisted stitches up the sides remind me of DNA models.   These would require a lot of concentration – definitely not office knitting.  I couldn’t find a photo to snag so you’ll have to click through to Ravelry to see these lovelies.

Girl’s Best Friend Thigh Highs (by Star Athena) have always intrigued me.  I’m not sure why – I’m not a thigh-high kind of girl.  I don’t wear snazzy short skirts with tights and boots in the winter, for which socks like these would be perfect.  But I like them just the same – aren’t the diamonds fun?  So there.  Perhaps I could make a knee-high version.  Again, no easy photo to snag, so click through to Ravelry.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (by Janine le Cras), above, is another stitch show-off pattern best for a solid yarn.  This one features a heart-like cable that I actually like.  Most of the heart cables look cheesy to me.  Perhaps a contender for a Valentine’s Day knit in 2012?

Warm Up Socks (by Sauniell Connally) is one I looked at for quite a while, trying to decide if I liked them or not.  There is a fishnet-like panel in these and normally I’m not a lacy sock person.  But something about these intrigues me…  Even the Ravelry photo isn’t great because the sock is shown on blockers rather than a foot, but the one in the book is fetching.  (Why doesn’t the publisher always submit photos to Ravelry? I don’t know!)

And finally, Sole Mates (by Alyson Johnson) is a good choice for semi-solid or solid yarn.  The cable down the back of the sock is lovely, and it extends onto the heel flap.  I’d want to wear these with open-heeled shoes to show that off. Do click through to Ravelry to see the detail!

This book also contains some instructional content that would be helpful for a newer sock knitter, as well as some “knitty bits” panels sprinkled throughout the book with interesting facts – like showing off one hand-dyed yarn knit up in stockinette, ribbing, lace, and cable – the yarn looks sooooo different!  The book has a hard cover with a spiral binding – my favorite package for knitting books.  If I really make all 7 of these patterns, it will have been quite a bargain!